Times Like These
by 100percentlovely
Summary: It's times like these when she wishes she had never met the pretty boy with the innocent smile. Jade-centric  Beck/Jade Beck/Tori


Yippee, my first fanfic! Well, posted on this site, at least…

I'll post an actual A/N at the end, so, yeah. Enjoy!

x.x

Jade West isn't stupid. She's known from that first moment she saw them together that things would never be the same again.

"Dude! Why are you _rubbing_ my boyfriend?"

Beck kisses her on the cheek and tells her to calm down, but that doesn't keep the black coffee from being poured into the new girl's hair less than 10 minutes later. He gives her a look that says 'what the hell?', but Jade just smirks in satisfaction as Vega runs out of the room.

Just when Jade thinks she's scared Tori off, she comes back and kisses him in front of the class. She apologizes later, and it takes every ounce of self control for Jade to ignore her and walk away without slapping her in the face.

"Calm down, it was just for a scene!" he insists later that night when they're alone and sitting in his RV.

There's no response, but she turns her body so her back is facing him.

"I swear, Jade, I didn't feel a thing. It didn't mean anything to me." Beck moves to sit in front of her, and tilts her face so she's looking directly at him.

Jade gazes up into his eyes, and the way he's staring at her is so strong that she forces herself to believe it. "Okay."

One heated make-out session later, they're lying in his bed side-by-side, and everything else in the world seems so distant, because, for just this moment, they're Beck&Jade again. Only they're not.

x.x

She watches them carefully, easily noticing the hints of flirting during their interactions. Tori always adjusts her hair and plants a huge grin on her face before talking to him. He'll smile when he sees her, and, occasionally, they'll hug and it looks like their bodies fit perfectly against each other.

Before Jade's even aware of it, her life is spiraling uncontrollably into some cliché romance-comedy movie. New girl comes to school, has a 'moment' with a cute, popular guy, and they're forced to face many challenges on their path to happily ever after. It's the same over-used, familiar plotline that you see in nearly every film nowadays.

Tori, obviously, is the new girl, with the charming personality and the amazing ability to make friends on her first day of school. Beck's the popular guy, the one who'd be the football captain if they went to a normal high school, who falls head-over-heels for her. And Jade? Easy, she's the girlfriend that gets shoved aside as the movie takes its course.

x.x

Their relationship starts falling apart, but, really, what else could she have expected? They'll fight and she'll snap at him for spending too much time with other girls, well mainly Tori. He'll tell her to calm down, without success. Then she'll storm out of his RV, kicking the door on her way out to leave yet another dent in the metal, just to start the whole process over again the next day.

Jade knows that when she leaves, it's Tori he'll call for consolation. She knows that when she skips lunch because it's just too much effort to act herself for those forty-five minutes, they'll sit together, not giving a damn about the girl crying behind the curtains of the auditorium. She knows it, and she hates it, but neither of them does anything to try and mend the cracks in the solid wall of what used to represent Beck&Jade.

x.x

They're on the verge of splitting up, and Jade finds it funny, laughable even, that their final fight isn't about Tori at all. It's just another one of their daily arguments, made a million times worse when Beck calls the skinny, half-Latina girl over.

"Alright, you know what?"

"Tell me what."

"We're. Done." Jade makes little hand motions as she talks, first pointing at her, then him, and then severing the imaginary line holding them together.

"So you're breaking up with me." It's not a question, simply a statement, as if he felt her point needed to be clarified. Disbelief is written on his face, but it's less of a disappointed look in his eyes than it is a 'you're really being a bitch' look.

She hesitates for just a moment, not long enough for either Beck or Tori to catch it. "Yeah," Jade says with a nod. "I am." She starts walking away, and it hurts when she notices that he's not even trying to chase her.

"You're being ridiculous!" Beck yells from behind her.

Jade whips around, furious, her eyes set ablaze with licks of blue fire. Fuck you, she wants to spit at him, but she doesn't want to get sent to the guidance counselor _again_ for bad language, so she settles on a somewhat friendlier response.

"What do you care?" Jade screams at him. Her heart's pounding at a million beats a minute, and it's a struggle to even keep her voice steady as she glares at him, the corners of her eyes stinging with oncoming tears. "I'm not your girlfriend anymore!"

Jade turns away, just in time for a single tear to carve its path down her cheek. She's racing out of the building now, vaguely aware that she's running towards _their_ place at the park. When she gets there, she looks around, somehow expecting him to appear out of nowhere like he always does, expecting his warm arms to wrap around her waist and the words "I love you" being whispered into her ear.

But she's only met with silence, and she has just enough time to throw her backpack onto the grass before her legs collapse and she's on the ground, sobbing.

x.x

"_Hey,"_

_The 14-year old girl with the dark hair and black clothes looks up at the sound of the voice, only to find some boy from her class watching her. He's in her Improv class at Hollywood Arts, and she remembers him as the most normal-seeming one in the entire group of students. He's tall, with tan skin, long hair, and an expression full of concern. _

"_Do I know you?" Jade asks rudely, glaring up at him. _

"_I'm Beck. I'm in your Improv class. But you probably already know that, or else you would've run away at the sight of some creepy stranger coming up to talk to you."He smiles, and it's so happy and full of innocence that it almost makes her want to smile back._

"_Hi" Her expression visibly softens, but she refuses to change her tone voice._

_Beck sits down next to her and leans against the tree behind him. "Well, I was just wondering why a girl as pretty as you was sitting here all alone on such a beautiful Friday afternoon, and then I thought of the most brilliant idea."_

"_Does it involve a guy named Beck sitting down next to said girl, using stupid pick-up lines to get her to date him?" _

_He smiles again, and she really wishes he'd stop, because, as much as she hates to admit it, his smile is infectious, and she can almost feel the corners of her mouth rising a little. _

"_So, did it hurt when you fell from heaven? Because y-"_

_Jade punches him in the arm, and immediately stands up, brushing herself off. _

"_Ow, that hurt!"he complains, rubbing his arm. There'll be a bruise there tomorrow, she's made sure of it. _

"_Pick me up at 7 tomorrow night. And _don't_ ask me what I want to do, because if you don't already have something spectacular planned, I'll spread a rumor around school that will ruin you." The ghost of a smile seems to cross her face, but then she turns and starts walking away. _

_Beck smiles yet again because he's pretty sure there's no feeling on the earth that could make him ever feel this great, and when she turns around and yells something that sounds suspiciously like "I can't wait!", he's grinning from ear to ear._

_x.x_

Later that night, when she's finally dragged herself home, Jade cries herself to sleep, only to wake up screaming several times in the middle of the night.

She doesn't skip school to stay home and wallow in self-pity, because that's pathetic and pointless, so she drags herself out of bed when her alarm rings and forces herself to go to school. She sits by herself during lunch, glaring at the gang as they talk and laugh about whatever stupid thing has happened now. Cat tries to come over and talk, carrying a bag of brownies, but Jade pushes her away, and the redhead returns to her table full of friends, upset.

Jade watches as Beck casually places his hand on top of Tori's, watches as her cheeks turn red, watches as that smile that had first attracted her to him lights up Beck's face yet again. She stabs her fork into her untouched salad, and throws it in the trash can with a little more force than necessary, before stalking off.

It's times like these when she knows that Tori's officially taken her place.

x.x

Sometimes when Jade's all alone at night, staring up at the glow-in-the-dark stars on her ceiling, she'll tell herself that she was never good enough for him. He deserves someone better, she says to herself, someone like Tori. She'll say it loud; scream the words and listen to the sounds echo and bounce off the walls of the empty house. And every now and then, she'll believe it.

It's times like these when Jade wishes that her life really was a Hollywood movie. She wishes that the screen would show one last picture of the happy couple, and then cut to the ending credits, the characters ceasing to exist. After all, that's what everyone wants to see, right?

But instead of life simply stopping, it continues moving forward. The earth keeps rotating on its stupid axis, the planet still revolving on its stupid orbit around the sun. She hates it, hates the fact that she has to pretend she's fine, hates the way she has to keep going on when everything's so, so broken.

x.x

Two years later, they're graduating from Hollywood Arts, and they all head off in different directions. Beck and Tori move to some other state, looking for some good acting roles, Andre finds a great job making the soundtracks for movies, Robbie lands a few decent parts in some TV shows, and flies off to Florida, while Jade and Cat head off to Broadway. They don't see each other much for another couple years, until Beck and Tori decide it's time to settle down and get married.

They have their wedding in Los Angeles, in some fancy, white chapel full of decorations that make Jade want to barf. She rolls her eyes when Tori's eyes light up at the first sight of him, and the way he smiles his ridiculously contagious smile at her. Tori's wearing a long, white dress, while he's dressed in a dark black tuxedo. She listens to them read their vows, and his voice suddenly penetrates her mind.

"_I promise that when we get married, you can wear a black dress."_

They're words from a long time ago, a simpler time, when it was just them, Beck and Jade, against the world.

Jade leans back in her chair. It's time for him to kiss the bride, and while the rest of the crowd sighs in happiness, she darts out of the room and into the harsh California sunlight.

It doesn't help much that there's paparazzi crowding outside the chapel, either.

"Jade! Jade West!" a reporter yells. "Is it true that you once had a relationship with the groom, Beck Oliver? How does it feel to be here at today, at his wedding with popular movie star, Tori Vega?"

Jade pushes her way through the mob of reporters, shielding her face from the blinding flashes of the cameras.

"No comment."

It's times like these when Jade West wishes she had never met the pretty boy with the innocent smile.

x.x

**Author's note: **So, two hours ago, I had no idea what I was gonna write. Now, two hours later, I have no idea what I just wrote. Anyway, pretty sucky story for my first entrance into the Victorious fandom, so don't criticize me that much? Please?

By the way, I like Beck/Jade AND Beck/Tori, and it kills me when I see people hating on the other girl just to make their story better. Jade's heartless and mean on the show, yeah, but you shouldn't make her go into full-on bitch mode when it comes to writing Bori. And it bugs me when Bade shippers make Tori try to steal Beck from Jade, because, if you've seen the show, Tori's a sweet person. I mean, I do think that she was acting like a whore when she kissed Beck in the first episode, but she would never try to steal him away from Jade.

Remember, at the end of the day, Victorious is just a TV show brought to us for entertainment. There's no need to fight vigorously over Bori and Bade.

Well, that's all I have to say, so…yeah. Review, please? Or don't, y'know, whatever suits you.

~saxo


End file.
